THE GARDEN PROJECT

In 1992, The Garden Project was founded with a mission unlike any organization in the country: to provide job training and support to former offenders through counseling and assistance in continuing education, while also impacting the communities from which they come. Today, The Garden Project continues this mission – innovatively empowering both former offenders and at-risk youth through training and education while transforming the urban environment. The Garden Project model for community change is an integrated, community-wide, systemic response to crime, high rates of recidivism, and unemployment which links crime and poverty with stewardship of the environment and the community. The United States Department of Agriculture hailed The Garden Project as “one of the most innovative and successful community-based crime prevention programs in the country.”

Teaching people stewardship of the environment and their communities

Garden Project Apprentices work in an intensive program to learn horticulture skills and grow organic vegetables that feed seniors and families in San Francisco. Apprentices grow a variety of vegetables – such as kale, Swiss chard, and broccoli – which are distributed by community centers. In addition, some centers offer nutrition and cooking classes with Garden Project vegetables, teaching children and families how to eat better. Garden Project Apprentices also work to support neighborhood greening projects by cultivating plants for schools, establishing and maintaining gardens at police stations and housing developments, and supporting community clean-up efforts.

Empowering communities

Providing more than just a paycheck, The Garden Project allows its participants the opportunity to continue their education and develop the life skills needed to remain out of jail. As a part of their work, Garden Project Apprentices attend classes at community colleges as well as participating in individual tutoring, literacy, and computer classes.

Forming innovative partnerships to improve City services and connect communities

Bringing together public and private agencies for meetings, fairs, and community projects, The Garden Project works to connect agencies with the communities they serve – improving relationships and bringing more citizens into active civic life. The Garden Project is a partnership of public and private organizations including the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department, the San Francisco Police Department, the California Department of Forestry and more than 25 community organizations.

A Successful Model For Change and Reform

Through the cooperative efforts of local agencies working together to assist former prisoner and the communities from which they come, San Francisco has a successful model for preventing crime and high rates of recidivism. Organizations and thinkers from all over the world – including the United States, England, Japan, Australia and South Africa -- are looking to the work of The Garden Project as a model for community change. Every year, hundreds of individuals make inquiries or come to San Francisco to learn more about our model firsthand. Publications such as The Economist, The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, The San Francisco Chronicle, The San Francisco Examiner, The Christian Science Monitor, Orion, Sunset, MS. Magazine, “The Lehrer Newshour,” “All Things Considered,” and many more have featured the work of The Garden Project.

 ©  Copyright The Garden Project 2000